Judge Holds Government Lawyer in Contempt in Immigration Case

A Minnesota federal judge held a Justice Department lawyer in civil contempt over his handling of litigation challenging an immigrant’s continued detention.

Judge Laura M. Provinzino of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota on Wednesday ordered special assistant US attorney Matthew Isihar to pay $500 for each day the detained immigrant isn’t in possession of his identification documents, until the government has certified he received them, according to a docket entry.

Isihar apologized to the judge for allowing the case to “fall through the cracks” and blamed the issue on high caseloads and understaffing at the US attorney’s office, Paul Blume of Fox9 reported.

Isihar is among the military lawyers who have agreed to temporarily work for the US attorney’s office to fill staffing gaps left by a slew of resignations by Minnesota prosecutors, following a decision not to investigate the killing of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer.

Isihar was most recently a judge advocate for the US Army, before he began a detail in January from the Defense Department to the Justice Department as a special assistant US attorney, according to his LinkedIn page.

US attorneys across the country have told courts that their resources have been overwhelmed by a “flood” of litigation by migrants challenging their detention in habeas petitions. Minneapolis US attorney Daniel Rosen told a court last month the increase in habeas litigation “imposes an enormous burden on this U.S. Attorney’s Office,” requiring the office to shift its resources from other priorities and for its attorneys and staff to work overtime.

The strain prompted an outburst from another detailed government lawyer in a Minnesota federal courtroom earlier this month. Julie Le, an attorney representing the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, told a judge at a hearing, “The system sucks, this job sucks,” in response to the judge’s questions on situations where courts have found ICE violated court orders in migrants’ cases.

The surge of new cases stems from the Trump administration’s decision to take a new interpretation of the federal immigration statute and require nearly all noncitizens arrested by immigration authorities to be detained while their cases proceed.

Wednesday’s contempt finding came in a habeas case brought by a Mexican citizen, Rigoberto Soto Jimenez who has lived in Minnesota since 2018 and is married to a US permanent resident, according to court filings. He was arrested in January and has been held in custody since, after the government determined he was subject to mandatory detention.

Provinzino told the government in a Feb. 9 order to release Soto Jimenez by Feb. 13, after finding that the mandatory detention law shouldn’t apply to him. The judge also noted the government hadn’t replied to his petition on time.

On Tuesday, four days after Rigoberto S. J. was supposed to be released, Provinzino scheduled a hearing for the government to show why it shouldn’t be held in contempt for failing to release him and return his property to him.

Provinzino served as an assistant US attorney in Minnesota between 2010 and 2024, when President Joe Biden nominated her a seat on the district court.

The case is Soto Jimenez v. Bondi, D. Minn., No. 0:26-cv-00957, 2/18/26